Lighting The Dark Side won the ALLBOOKS REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD 2009 for Short Story Collections.
Allbooks Reviews said this when they reviewed the book in June 2008
The book jacket claims these tales will exercise our emotions, capture our imagination, and challenge us to think in new directions. Well, I'm here to tell you all that the author delivers on all that plus much, much more! These novellas and short stories are definitely page-turners, but what impressed me the most was their character-driven force. I am highly recommending Lighting the Dark Side. As I said, all the stories are captivating but more than that, I urge you to take note of the writer's talent for character development and I'm sure you'll be impressed. In fact, I shouldn't think it'd be long before a major publishing house snaps Mr. Potter up because he belongs on the bookshelves with the likes of Jeffery Deaver and Peter Abrahams.
Highly recommended by reviewer: Jan Evan Whitford, Allbooks Reviews
Other Reviewers said...
Come to the Dark Side! by L. Webster, Amazon reviewer.
Each story draws you in within the first few sentences and will hold your attention through the completion. All of the characters are well developed and seem very real. I became so involved in each tale that I found myself wishing that these weren't short stories and that each work was a full-length novel instead. Don't get me wrong, the writing was very thorough and the stories were not lacking anything, but I enjoyed the characters and the writing style so much that I just wished that they were longer! In the author's biography that was sent along with the book it states that he is "re-working two full-length novel manuscripts for publishing" and if these works are anything similar to "Lighting the Dark Side: Six Modern Tales" then I can't wait to read them!
Something very different, Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (7/08)
"Lighting the Dark Side" contains a collection of six refreshingly different short stories. Each one is very unique and cannot be compared to the others. I really enjoyed reading the stories. They are about human nature and how we deal with hardships. Sometimes we overcome them, sometimes we obliterate them and sometimes we just make adjustments in ourselves to live with them. This book by William R. Potter, will definitely be enjoyed by all fans of fiction. I think that it would make an excellent selection for a reader's group or for a college course. I would love to hear the interesting discussions that will be held about these stories.
Lighting The Dark Side is an anthology of short fiction including three novellas and three shorter works covering a wide range of fiction genres including, Action/thriller, Mystery/ Suspense, Sci-fi, Romance and even Hard-boiled detective. Regular people find themselves caught up in extraordinary situations; and all are locked into circumstances rendered more complex by their own weaknesses.
The Stories
Bent, Not Broken. An obsessive compulsive man falls in love; however, his disorder puts a severe strain on the relationship. Jealousy, low self-esteem, anxiety, and an increasing sense of violence engulf him until he pushes his new love away and falls into old habits of avoidance.
In the Gray. A seemingly mundane phone call between a grown son and his mother uncovers the reality of one man’s life. Tragedy interrupts the call seconds before the man can speak his truth and free his mind of decades of bitter animosity.
Prominent Couple Slain. A former big city police detective is weary of the horrors of homicide investigation. A few weeks after transferring to a small town police service he faces the brutality of murder once again when a prominent couple is found dead.
May 18, 2010. Growing pandemonium over the approach of an earth-grazing comet called Ivan is the backdrop for a man who is given numerous chances to make amends with his loved ones.
Blessing or Curse? Who wouldn’t enjoy winning the lottery? One man’s million dollar windfall becomes a curse when his son is abducted and held for ransom. Along with three friends, he takes up arms in a frantic effort to rescue his kidnapped child.
Surviving the Fall. A man with compassion for desperate souls meets a young street girl. Sickened by her life story, he impulsively offers her his couch for the night and then feels unable to send her away. The comfort the two find in their unorthodox relationship is short-lived; shattered by violence as the girl’s past catches up to her.
An excellent group of short stories, Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (9/08)
These stories are so character driven that if you don't already know someone like them (including yourself), you'll wish you did! I found the first story to be the strongest. Each paragraph seamlessly builds onto the one before and just when you could imagine yourself living with these characters for a long, long time it's over way too soon. But I don't want the praise of Bent, Not Broken to in any way diminish the great plots, storytelling and characters of the other 5 stories. They all have a very unique story to tell. Each, in its own way, is a wonderful story with interesting and real people. We need more works such as these. You will definitely enjoy each journey and beg for more.
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